I love having family in town. I love hosting people at my house. I remember in college my mother bought a hot plate so I could mix up hot chocolate in the dorms during the anticipated cold Indiana winter. I was so excited to be able to invite my good friends over to enjoy a cup with me. It was thrilling, anticipating their arrival.
Visits were always electrifying as a child too. My Grandma and Grandpa Watson used to travel into town in their oversized RV. In my earliest memories they would stay at the KOA campground. Swimming pool, recreation center, and playground – what an adventure! At the house we would enjoy rolled tacos from Lolita’s whenever my Grandpa “cooked”. Eventually we would all sit around and enjoy my Grandfather’s best anecdotes and road stories. Sometimes we would be privy to his sea stories from life on the submarine. He was always the best at telling jokes. His sense of humor was so refined. At times he would pause at the end of a joke, his hands frozen where he had delivered the punch line, waiting for the subtlety to sink in.
We lived on the corner of Montclair and Melrose in Chula Vista. Our main thoroughfare to either freeway and to downtown CV was L Street, straight down Melrose. One day Grandpa was giving me a ride to the movies. Perhaps it was the re-release of the original Star Wars, before that crappy prequel. We were driving on Melrose, coming up the hill from Inkopah. Grandpa asked for directions. I told him to go straight to L and take a left. It took me a full minute to realize why he was pretending to be so biblically offended.
The Coast Guard has shown me more of how much I love hosting people at my house. In Sitka it was poker games. Any time I have ever sat down to play a game of poker I have sat down with my stomach full of butterflies. The only evasion of this problem has come from preparation as a host. My favorite lonely pastime is brewing coffee and sorting poker chips. I truly enjoy having visitors comfortable in my home. Here in Rockport that translates into Super Bowl parties, cookouts, and Wii Bowling Tournaments. Well, not so much that last one… yet!
So as Mike leaves to head back to work, I realize how incredibly short this packed summer will be – how I need to treasure every moment of my time with family and my new friends. I am so excited to see how much fun the remainder will be, as I am having the time of my life.
